Dead Frog Found in Pret A Manger Salad

A WSJ employee found an unexpected ingredient in her Pret A Manger salad — a frog.

Sarah Nassauer/WSJ

While eating her lunch-time salad, a Wall Street Journal employee found an unexpected ingredient – a frog.

After opening a Pret A Manger nicoise salad at her desk, and eating about half of it, she discovered an approximately two inch long green and brown dead frog in the lettuce. She summoned nearby coworkers to confirm what she saw.

Ellen Roggemann, vice president of brand marketing for the company in the U.S., said that Pret A Manger’s goal of selling “handmade natural food,” often made from organic ingredients, could be partially to blame for the frog in the salad.

“We don’t use any pesticides with our greens and they go through multiple washing cycles,” she said. “An unfortunate piece of organic matter has made its way through,” she added.

The Wall Street Journal employee brought her salad back to where she purchased it, the Pret location on 6th Ave between 47th and 48th street across from the company’s office in New York. After handing the salad with frog to the store’s manager, the manager apologized, said the Wall Street Journal employee who declined to be named. She received a refund and a voucher for a free lunch, she said.

A frog found in a salad at lunchtime.

Kathryn Lurie/WSJ

“We are so regretful that this has happened,” said Ms. Roggemann.

Pret issued a statement about the incident:

“At Pret A Manger, we take issues like this very seriously. Our lettuce is sourced from farms that do not use any pesticides on its produce, therefore organic matter does very rarely manage to pass through our production process. We are currently looking into this issue to make every effort that this does not happen again.”

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